Another Macrodactyly Post-Surgery Update

Well it's been almost a month since Elise's surgery.  It really doesn't seem that long ago to me, but of course a lot has happened.  A couple of days after the last update, just over two weeks after the surgery, she was given the ok to resume normal activity.  Walking, running, jumping, anything goes.  And she took it to heart.  A few days before that she was able to start doing a bit of walking, and it was really great to see that within about 10 seconds back on her feet she was off and walking around as if nothing had happened.  And now she's back to doing everything she was before the operation.

She's also out of her bandage, wearing a prescription, custom-made class 1 compression sock pretty much all the time.  We picked it up Friday and just like her first steps with the bandage, she took a couple of cautious steps feeling the difference and then was off again.  The bandage was also the last hurdle before seeing what our new footwear situation would be.  So we left the orthopedic shop and headed straight for a shoe store.  Our only pause was to show P & E the Marienplatz glockenspiel figures dancing their 11AM dance.  To our joy, we found that Elise was able to fit into off the shelf shoes.  The front of her affected foot is definitely still thick with extra tissue, but we found a few pairs of shoes she could fit into.  The foot is a (European) size larger than the other, but at least for now we can get shoes at any old place.  Elise is now the proud owner of a pair of covered-toe sandals and a sweet pair of pink and brown high-tops.

One last thing from the past couple of weeks... I was able to visit with another family affected by macrodactyly and it was great.  I've been covering for an Israeli colleague and have been there a couple of times in the past month, and we connected through the blog with an Israeli family with a daughter who has basically exactly the same manifestation of the condition.  In my latest trip to Israel I was able to meet up with the family for a nice visit.  She's a number of years older and has had two surgeries, so it was great to trade notes and share stories with them.  Since there are only a relative handful of people with this condition world wide, it was a very special treat to be able to meet someone else affected by macrodactyly.  I really hope the girls can get together some day.

Now a few pics and videos...

The before and after of her foot (the previous post describes what was done during the surgery).  The biggest thing I noticed was how her other toes suddenly seemed much bigger.

She was so excited after shoe shopping she wanted to dance in her new kicks.